In order to enhance overall network reliability and availability, network providers often use cables, e.g., Y-cables, to interconnect network equipment to support network equipment protection using redundant line cards. A Y-cable is an electrical cable that has two connectors at one end and a single connector at the other end. All three endpoints of the Y-cable are interconnected electrically. However, when Y-cables have been used for an extensive period of time, they tend to become failure-prone and can cause service impacting outages. Y-cable failures cause long duration service impacting outages and contribute to customer dissatisfaction in a very significant way. In addition, each outage causes network providers to provide reactive problem diagnosis, isolation, repair, and customer status reporting. There is currently no automated method to capture the signature of deteriorating performance on Y-cables well in advance of actual failures. If imminent Y-cable failures can be detected, network providers can then proactively prioritize Y-cable replacements and automatically dispatch maintenance staffs to perform actual replacements to prevent service impacting outages.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for signature based predictive maintenance for cables, e.g., Y-cables, in a communication network.